Priest gravely wounded in Iraq in 2004 dies

"Five years after being gravely wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq, the Rev. Tim Vakoc, a well-known and much-loved Roman Catholic priest from Minnesota, has died[1], his family said Sunday.

"A man of peace, he chose to endure the horror of war in order to bring the peace of Christ to America's fighting men and women," Archbishop John Nienstedt wrote in a prepared statement."

For those of us who do not have a family member fighting in Iraq, or worst, has had a family member die in Iraq, the death of Father Tim Vakoc seems to offer a personal connection in the sense that he was a non-combatant priest and we know those kind of folks. There is an acute sadness in reading this story today.